β
If you ever meet the man who could take advantage of Isabelle, youβll have to let me know. Iβd like to shake his hand. Or run away from him very fast, Iβm not sure which.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until somewhat stands behind you and says, βItβs OK, you can fall down now. Iβll catch you.
β
β
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
β
I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone.
β
β
Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
β
Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
β
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.
β
β
George Orwell (Animal Farm)
β
My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.
β
β
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
β
Real gangster-ass Nerdfighters donβt run from nothingβ¦ βcause real gangster-ass Nerdfighters canβt run fast.
β
β
John Green
β
You deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who'll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.
β
β
Jay Kristoff (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
β
β
Lewis Carroll (Alice Through The Looking Glass)
β
He sounds like a politician running for office.
β
β
March Lions (The Last Sunset)
β
No, I'm too tired to run, and you're too fast. You'd only catch me." "That's right, luv." Softly, but with unyielding resonance. "if you run from me, I'll chase you. And I'll find you. Bones said.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
β
The girl flinched, even lying down. Mary continued through gritted teeth. βMurder canβt be walked away from. Just like you canβt walk away from Viktor. Heβll find you if you run. Richard canβt protect you if Viktor believes you have his babies.
β
β
Susan Rowland (Murder on Family Grounds (Mary Wandwalker #3))
β
There's no such thing as the perfect soulmate. If you meet someone and you think they're perfect, you better run as fast as you can in the other direction. 'Cos your soulmate is the person that pushes all your buttons, pisses you off on a regular basis, and makes you face your shit.
β
β
Madonna
β
Go 'head." Those freaky-ass black eyes had stared at Butch with the intensity of a shark. "Crack open that door. Run your little heart out. Run fast, run smart, call for help. Just know that I'll come after you. Like a hearse." - Zsadist
β
β
J.R. Ward (Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1))
β
Life, Stormy says, is not about how fast you run or even with what degree of grace. It's about perseverance, about staying on your feet and slogging forward no matter what.
β
β
Dean Koontz
β
Simon snorted. "If you ever meet the man who could take advantage of Isabelle, you'll have to let me know. I'd like to shake his hand. Or run away from him very fast, I'm not sure which.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
You can run and run as fast and as far as you like, but the truth is, wherever you run, there you are.
β
β
Cecelia Ahern (Where Rainbows End)
β
You cannot outwalk your problems. Can never run fast enough to evade them completely.
β
β
Alyson Noel (Dark Flame (The Immortals, #4))
β
There are times when friendship feels like running down a hill together as fast as you can, jumping over things, spinning around, and you don't care where you're going, and you don't care where you've come from, because all that matters is speed, and the hands holding your hands.
β
β
M.T. Anderson (Whales on Stilts: M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales (Pals in Peril, #1))
β
Leo could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill him. Sadly, heβd had a lot of practice.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3))
β
You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says, βItβs OK, you can fall down now. Iβll catch you.
β
β
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
β
Don't run I never liked fast food
β
β
Rachel Caine
β
Weβre running out of time, he said.
As if time were the kind of thing you could run out of, as if it were measured into bowls that were handed to us at birth and if we ate too much or too fast or right before jumping into the water then our time would be lost, wasted, already spent.
But time is beyond our finite comprehension. Itβs endless, it exists outside of us; we cannot run out of it or lose track of it or find a way to hold on to it. Time goes on even when we do not.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2))
β
Success in life is not for those who run fast, but for those who keep running and always on the move.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You don't have to be fast. But you'd better be fearless.
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
β
And I do. I do wonder, I think about it all the time. What it would be like to kill myself. Because I never really know, I still can't tell the difference, I'm never quite certain whether or not I'm actually alive. I sit here every single day. Run, I said to myself. Run until your lungs collapse, until the wind whips and snaps at your tattered clothes, until you're a blur that blends into the background.
Run, Juliette, run faster, run until your bones break and your shins split and your muscles atrophy and your heart dies because it was always too big for your chest and it beat too fast for too long and you run.
Run run run until you can't hear their feet behind you. Run until they drop their fists and their shouts dissolve in the air. Run with your eyes open and your mouth shut and dam the river rushing up behind your eyes. Run, Juliette.
Run until you drop dead. Make sure your heart stops before they ever reach you. Before they ever touch you.
Run, I said.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2))
β
Guys can smell desperation. It triggers an instinct in them to run far and fast so they aren't around when a woman starts peeling apart her heart.
β
β
Janette Rallison (My Fair Godmother (My Fair Godmother, #1))
β
When I was little and running on the race track at school, I always stopped and waited for all the other kids so we could run together even though I knew (and everybody else knew) that I could run much faster than all of them! I pretended to read slowly so I could "wait" for everyone else who couldn't read as fast as I could! When my friends were short I pretended that I was short too and if my friend was sad I pretended to be unhappy. I could go on and on about all the ways I have limited myself, my whole life, by "waiting" for people. And the only thing that I've ever received in return is people thinking that they are faster than me, people thinking that they can make me feel bad about myself just because I let them and people thinking that I have to do whatever they say I should do. My mother used to teach me "Cinderella is a perfect example to be" but I have learned that Cinderella can go fuck herself, I'm not waiting for anybody, anymore! I'm going to run as fast as I can, fly as high as I can, I am going to soar and if you want you can come with me! But I'm not waiting for you anymore.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Our lives are one endless stretch of misery punctuated by processed fast foods and the occasional crisis or amusing curiosity.
β
β
Augusten Burroughs (Running with Scissors)
β
Take it from me, kid, sometimes itβs okay to run. You run as fast as you damn well can.
β
β
Barry Kirwan (The Eden Paradox (Eden Paradox, #1))
β
Nobody's going to win all the time. On the highway of life you can't always be in the fast lane.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)
β
God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.
β
β
Eric Liddell
β
Rose. Listen to me. Run. Run as fast and as hard as you can back to your dorm. Tell the guardians."
I nodded. There was no questioning here.
Reaching out, he gripped my upper arm, gaze locked on me to make sure I understood his next words. "Do not stop," he said. "No matter what you hear, no matter what you see, do not stop. Not until you've warned the others. Don't stop unless you're directly confronted. Do you understand?"
I nodded again. He released his hold.
"Tell them buria."
I nodded again.
"Run.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3))
β
Every day of my life it feels as if I'm
fighting my way up an escalator that only goes down.
And no matter how fast or how hard I run to try to reach the top, I stay in
the same place, sprinting, getting nowhere.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (Confess)
β
Pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.
β
β
Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity)
β
You will always go into that tent. You will see her scar and wonder where she got it. You will always be amazed at how one woman can have so much black hair. You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.
β
β
Catherynne M. Valente (Deathless)
β
nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know
β¦nothing ever really attacks us except our own confusion. perhaps there is no solid obstacle except our own need to protect ourselves from being touched. maybe the only enemy is that we donβt like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. but what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. if we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. it just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves.
β
β
Pema ChΓΆdrΓΆn (When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times)
β
BONES: βI want you to promise me something. Promise me youβre not going to start running again.β
CAT: βNo, Iβm too tired to run, and youβre too fast. Youβd only catch me.β
BONES: βThatβs right, luv. If you run from me, Iβll chase you. And Iβll find you.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
β
I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast!
And when I run I feel his pleasure.
β
β
Eric Liddell
β
A faint smile that made every tiny hair on her body rise in quivering attention. "How fast can you run?" A wolf's question.
β
β
Nalini Singh (Kiss of Snow (Psy-Changeling, #10))
β
I type as fast as a ten-legged man who just had eight legs chopped off runs.
β
β
Jarod Kintz (Who Moved My Choose?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change by Deciding to Let Indecision Into Your Life)
β
And now we can't," I said. "Which sucks, but the main thing is that your dad's alive."
He smiled, hesitant at first, then a blazing grin broke through that made my heart stop. I recovered and grinned back and went to throw my arms around his neck, then stopped, blushing. Before I could pull back, he caught my elbows and put my arms around his neck and pulled me into a hug.
Then he jumped, chair swiveling so fast I nearly went flying. I heard footsteps in the hall and I scrambled off his lap just as Simon swung in, breathing heavily, like he'd come running.
β
β
Kelley Armstrong (The Reckoning (Darkest Powers, #3))
β
Sometimes its hard to tell how fast the current's moving until you're headed over a waterfall
β
β
Kimberly McCreight (Reconstructing Amelia)
β
It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a better chance of seeing where we are when we stop trying to get somewhere else. We can enjoy every moment of movement, as long as where we are is as good as where we'd like to be. That's not to say that you need to be satisfied forever with where you are today. But you need to honor what you've accomplished, rather than thinking of what's left to be done (p. 159).
β
β
John Bingham (No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running)
β
No, we don't walk away. But when we're holding on to something precious, we run. We run and run, fast as we can, and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow.
β
β
Neil Cross
β
Iβm a modern man, a man for the millennium. Digital and smoke free. A diversified multi-cultural, post-modern deconstruction that is anatomically and ecologically incorrect. Iβve been up linked and downloaded, Iβve been inputted and outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. Iβm a high-tech low-life. A cutting edge, state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond!
Iβm new wave, but Iβm old school and my inner child is outward bound. Iβm a hot-wired, heat seeking, warm-hearted cool customer, voice activated and bio-degradable. I interface with my database, my database is in cyberspace, so Iβm interactive, Iβm hyperactive and from time to time Iβm radioactive.
Behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, ridin the wave, dodgin the bullet and pushin the envelope. Iβm on-point, on-task, on-message and off drugs. Iβve got no need for coke and speed. I've got no urge to binge and purge. Iβm in-the-moment, on-the-edge, over-the-top and under-the-radar. A high-concept, low-profile, medium-range ballistic missionary. A street-wise smart bomb. A top-gun bottom feeder. I wear power ties, I tell power lies, I take power naps and run victory laps. Iβm a totally ongoing big-foot, slam-dunk, rainmaker with a pro-active outreach. A raging workaholic. A working rageaholic. Out of rehab and in denial!
Iβve got a personal trainer, a personal shopper, a personal assistant and a personal agenda. You canβt shut me up. You canβt dumb me down because Iβm tireless and Iβm wireless, Iβm an alpha male on beta-blockers.
Iβm a non-believer and an over-achiever, laid-back but fashion-forward. Up-front, down-home, low-rent, high-maintenance. Super-sized, long-lasting, high-definition, fast-acting, oven-ready and built-to-last! Iβm a hands-on, foot-loose, knee-jerk head case pretty maturely post-traumatic and Iβve got a love-child that sends me hate mail.
But, Iβm feeling, Iβm caring, Iβm healing, Iβm sharing-- a supportive, bonding, nurturing primary care-giver. My output is down, but my income is up. I took a short position on the long bond and my revenue stream has its own cash-flow. I read junk mail, I eat junk food, I buy junk bonds and I watch trash sports! Iβm gender specific, capital intensive, user-friendly and lactose intolerant.
I like rough sex. I like tough love. I use the βFβ word in my emails and the software on my hard-drive is hardcore--no soft porn.
I bought a microwave at a mini-mall; I bought a mini-van at a mega-store. I eat fast-food in the slow lane. Iβm toll-free, bite-sized, ready-to-wear and I come in all sizes. A fully-equipped, factory-authorized, hospital-tested, clinically-proven, scientifically- formulated medical miracle. Iβve been pre-wash, pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-packaged, post-dated, freeze-dried, double-wrapped, vacuum-packed and, I have an unlimited broadband capacity.
Iβm a rude dude, but Iβm the real deal. Lean and mean! Cocked, locked and ready-to-rock. Rough, tough and hard to bluff. I take it slow, I go with the flow, I ride with the tide. Iβve got glide in my stride. Drivin and movin, sailin and spinin, jiving and groovin, wailin and winnin. I donβt snooze, so I donβt lose. I keep the pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road. I party hearty and lunch time is crunch time. Iβm hangin in, there ainβt no doubt and Iβm hangin tough, over and out!
β
β
George Carlin
β
Do what you will,
always
Walk where you like,
your steps
Do as you please, I'll
back you up.
I remember thinking
sometimes we walk
sometimes we run away
But I know
no matter how fast we are running
Somehow we keep
Somehow we keep up with each other.
β
β
Dave Matthews Band
β
Yet if a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? If she never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run?
β
β
Germaine Greer
β
He's already chasing you. Now all you have to do is keep running. Just not too fast.
β
β
Tammara Webber (Easy (Contours of the Heart, #1))
β
Any old horse will run when it's whipped, but only fast enough to avoid the whipping," Hilo said. "Racehorses, though, they run because they look at the horse on their left, they look at the one on their right, and they think, No way am I second to these fuckers.
β
β
Fonda Lee (Jade City (The Green Bone Saga, #1))
β
We are walking down the street holding hands. There is a playground at the end of the block, and I run to the swings and I climb on and Henry takes the one next to me facing the opposite direction. And we swing higher and higher passing each other, sometimes in synch and sometimes streaming past each other so fast that it seems we are going to collide. And we laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost or dead or far away. Right now we are here and nothing can mar our perfection or steal the joy of this perfect moment.
β
β
Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)
β
It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness.
They're so hard to pull.
And grow back so easily.
β
β
Wendelin Van Draanen (The Running Dream)
β
I donβt know if you have ever seem a map of a personβs mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a childβs mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island; for the Neverland is always more or less and island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
β
From "Wetness and Water"
How does a part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?
Do not try to put out a fire
by throwing on more fire.
Do not wash a wound with blood.
No matter how fast you run,
your shadow more than keeps up.
Sometimes it's in front.
Only full, overhead sun
diminishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you.
What hurts you blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.
β
β
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Big Red Book)
β
I wanted to kill someone and I wanted to die and I wanted to run as far and as fast as I could because she was never coming back. She had fallen off the face of the earth and she was never coming back.
β
β
Melissa Kantor (Maybe One Day)
β
Trouble is, you can't run away from yourself." Coach snatched the towel from his shoulder, folded into a perfect square, and set it in the space between us. "Unfortunately," he said, "ain't nobody that fast.
β
β
Jason Reynolds (Ghost (Track, #1))
β
You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says,"It's ok, you can fall down now. I'll catch you."
So I fell down.
β
β
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
β
Happiness is a dandelion wisp floating through the air that I canβt catch. No matter how hard I try, no matter how fast I run, I just canβt reach it. Even when I think I grasp it, I open my hand and itβs empty.
β
β
Erika L. SΓ‘nchez (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter)
β
Well," said Clary, after a judicious pause, "I guess you wouldn't have taken advantage of her when she's so grief-stricken and all."
Simon snorted. "If you ever meet the man who could take advantage of Isabelle, you'll have to let me know. I'd like to shake his hand. Or run away from him very fast, I'm not sure which.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Guys can smell desperation. It triggers an instinct in them to run far and fast so they aren't around when a woman starts peeling apart her heart. They know she'll ask for help in putting it back together the right way - intact and beating correctly - and they dread the thought of puzzling over layers that they can't understand, let alone rebuild. They'd rather just not get blood on their hands.
But sharks are different. They smell the blood of desperation and circle in. They whisper into a girl's ear, "I'll make it better. I'll make you forget all about your pain."
Sharks do this by eating your heart, but they never mention this beforehand. That is the thing about sharks.
β
β
Janette Rallison (My Fair Godmother (My Fair Godmother, #1))
β
Nina had grieved for her loss of power, for the connection sheβd felt to the living world. Sheβd resented this shadow gift. It had seemed like a sham, a punishment. But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. Sheβd dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
β
You deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who'll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.
You deserve more than I could ever give you, Kady.
But I'll give you everything I can if you still want me to.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Itβs the chemicals in our brains, they say. I got the wrong chemicals, Ma. Or rather, I donβt get enough of one or the other. They have a pill for it. They have an industry. They make millions. Did you know people get rich off of sadness? I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, βitβs been an honor to serve my country.β
The thing is, I donβt want my sadness to be othered from me just as I donβt want my happiness to be othered. Theyβre both mine. I made them, dammit. What if the elation I feel is not another βbipolar episodeβ but something I fought hard for? Maybe I jump up and down and kiss you too hard on the neck when I learn, upon coming home, that itβs pizza night because sometimes pizza night is more than enough, is my most faithful and feeble beacon. What if Iβm running outside because the moon tonight is childrenβs-book huge and ridiculous over the pines, the sight of it a strange sphere of medicine?
Itβs like when all youβve been seeing before you is a cliff and then this bright bridge appears out of nowhere, and you run fast across it knowing, sooner or later, thereβll be another cliff on the other side. What if my sadness is actually my most brutal teacher? And the lesson is always this: you donβt have to be like the buffaloes.
You can stop.
β
β
Ocean Vuong (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous)
β
We still groped for each other on the backstairs or in parked cars
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββas the road around us
grew glossy with ice and our breath softened the view through the glass
ββββββββββββββββββββalready laced with frost,
but more frequently I was finding myself sleepless, and he was running out of
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββlullabies.
But damn if there isnβt anything sexier
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββthan a slender boy with a handgun,
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββa fast car, a bottle of pills.
β
β
Richard Siken (Crush)
β
You start dying slowly
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.
You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.
You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same pathsβ¦
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you donβt know.
You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice.
β
β
Martha Medeiros
β
Let us take care of ourselves instead of burning out in the long run. The path of our inner world is not an irreversible freeway to immutable integrity. Let us thus leave room for some probing during the fast and furious assault of the wishful targets throughout our lives. We need not feel demeaned either when we waver in facing the hassling crossroads coming up or must admit needing incidental backing or feel compelled to accept to question ourselves to the bottom. ("Poste Restante")
β
β
Erik Pevernagie
β
if one day you feel like crying...
call me
I don't promise that
I will make you laugh
But I can cry with you.
If one day you want to run away
Don't be afraid to call me.
I don't promise to ask you to stop,
But I can run with you.
If one day you don't want to listen to anyone
call me
i promise to be there for you
but i also promise to remain quiet
But...
If one day you call
and there is no answer...
come fast to see me..
Perhaps I need you.
β
β
Robert J. Lavery
β
Lying in bed, my body and soul bruised and tired, I realize that the Officials are right. Once you want something, everything changes. Now I want everything. More and more and more. I want to pick my work position. Marry who I choose. Eat pie for breakfast and run down a real street instead of on a tracker. Go fast when I want and slow when I want. Decide which poems I want to read and what words I want to write. There is so much that I want. I feel it so much that I am water, a river of want, pooled in the shape of a girl named Cassia.
β
β
Ally Condie
β
The voice was low and tinged with a hint of Scotland. It would have caused Alexia to shiver and think primal monkey thoughts about moons and running far and fast, if she'd had a soul. Instead it caused her to sigh in exasperation and sit up.
β
β
Gail Carriger (Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1))
β
If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.
β
β
John Bingham
β
Itβs hard to explain to a twelve-year-old that when you were little and I walked too fast, you would run to catch up with me and take hold of my hand, and that those were the best moments of my life. Your fingertips in the palm of my hand. Before you knew how many things Iβd failed at.
β
β
Fredrik Backman (Anxious People)
β
Fuck You Poem #45
Fuck you in slang and conventional English.
Fuck you in lost and neglected lingoes.
Fuck you hungry and sated; faded, pock marked, and defaced.
Fuck you with orange rind, fennel and anchovy paste.
Fuck you with rosemary and thyme, and fried green olives on the side.
Fuck you humidly and icily.
Fuck you farsightedly and blindly.
Fuck you nude and draped in stolen finery.
Fuck you while cells divide wildly and birds trill.
Thank you for barring me from his bedside while he was ill.
Fuck you puce and chartreuse.
Fuck you postmodern and prehistoric.
Fuck you under the influence of opiun, codeine, laudanum, and paregoric.
Fuck every real and imagined country you fancied yourself princess of.
Fuck you on feast days and fast days, below and above.
Fuck you sleepless and shaking for nineteen nights running.
Fuck you ugly and fuck you stunning.
Fuck you shipwrecked on the barren island of your bed.
Fuck you marching in lockstep in the ranks of the dead.
Fuck you at low and high tide.
And fuck you astride
anyone who has the bad luck to fuck you, in dank hallways,
bathrooms, or kitchens.
Fuck you in gasps and whispered benedictions.
And fuck these curses, however heartfelt and true,
that bind me, till I forgive you, to you.
β
β
Amy Gerstler (Ghost Girl)
β
And then we jerked to a stop. Jared was blocking the exit. "Have you lost your mind, Ian?" he asked, shocked and outraged. "What are you doing to her?"
"Did you know about this?" Ian shouted back, shoving me toward Jared and shaking me at him.
"You're going to hurt her!"
"Do you know what she's planning?" Ian roared.
Jared stared at Ian, his face suddenly closed off. He didn't answer. That was answer enough for Ian.
Ian's fist struck Jared so fast that I missed the blow - I just felt the lurch in his body and saw Jared reel back into the dark hall.
"Ian, stop," I begged.
"You stop," he growled back at me.
He yanked me through the arch into the tunnel, then pulled me north. I had to almost run to keep up with his longer stride.
"OΒ΄Shea!" Jared shouted after us.
"I'm going to hurt her?" Ian roared back over his shoulder, not breaking pace. "I am? You hypocritical swine!"
There was nothing but silence and blackness behind us now. I stumbled in the dark, trying to keep up.
He jerked me along faster, and my breath caught in a moan, almost like a cry of pain.
The sound made Ian stumble to a stop. His breathing was hoarse in the darkness.
"Ian, Ian, I..." I chocked, unable to finish. I didn't know what to say, picturing his furious face.
His arms caught me abruptly, yanking my feet out from under me and then catching my shoulders before I could fall. He started running forward again, carrying me now. His hands were not rough and angry like before; he cradled me against his chest.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
Have you ever seen a little girl run so fast she falls down? There's an instant, a fraction of a second before the world catches hold of her again... A moment when she's outrun every doubt and fear she's ever had about herself and she flies. In that one moment, every little girl flies. I need to find that again. Like taking a car out into the desert to see how fast it can go, I need to find the edge of me... And maybe, if I fly far enough, I'll be able to turn around and look at the world... And see where I belong.
β
β
Kelly Sue DeConnick
β
For a moment nothing happens. The figure stands still and I stand cold and alive and-
He starts to run. I make my way down the rocks, slipping, sliding, trying to get to the plain. I wish, I think, my feet clumsy, moving too fast, not fast enough, I wish i could run, I wish I'd written a whole poem, I wish I kept the compass-
And then I reach the plain and wish for nothing but what I have. Ky. Running toward me. I have never seen him run like this, fast, free, strong, wild. He looks so beautiful, his body moves so right. He stops just close enough for me to see the blue of his eyes and forget the red on my hands and the green I wish I wore. "You're here," he says, breathing hard and hungry. sweat and dirt cover his face, and he looks at me as though I'm the only thing he ever needed to see. I open my mouth to say yes. But I only have time to breathe in before he closes the last of the distance. All I know is the kiss.
β
β
Ally Condie (Crossed (Matched, #2))
β
Emma convinced herself she'd lost him because she was fast. She was also adept at convincing herself of things that might not be - good at pretending. She could pretend she took classes at night by choice, and that blushing didn't make her thirsty--
A vicious growl sounded. Her eyes widened, but she didn't turn back, just sprinted across the field. She felt claws sink into her anckle a second before she was dragged to the muddy ground and thrown onto her back. A hand covered her mouth, though she'd been trained not to scream.
"Never run from one such as me." Her attacker didn't sound human. "You will no' get away. And we like it." His voice was guttural like a beast's, breaking, yet his accent was... Scottish?
β
β
Kresley Cole (A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark, #1))
β
To get a better idea try this: focus on these words, and whatever you do donβt let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you canβt see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact that you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. Thatβs where it is. Right at this moment. But donβt look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead take and even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard itβs gonna hit you, how many times it will stab your jugular with itβs teeth or are they nails?, donβt worry, that particular detail doesnβt matter, because before you have time to even process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms β you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book β you wonβt have time to even scream.
Donβt look.
I didnβt.
β
β
Mark Z. Danielewski
β
Finally, I sat up. "So, I suppose you should do something, wolfie. Hunt maybe?"
A grunt, the tone saying no.
"Run? Get some exercise?"
Another grunt, less decisive, more like a maybe.
He pushed to his feet, wobbly, still adjusting to his new center of gravity. He gingerly moved one fore paw, then the next, one rear paw, then the other. He picked up the pace, but still slow as he circled the clearing. A snort, like he'd figured it out, and broke into a lope, stumbled and plowed muzzle first into the undergrowth.
I stifled a laugh, but not very well, and he glowered at me.
"Forget running, a nice, leisurely stroll might be more your speed."
He snorted and turned fast. When I fell back, he gave a growling chuckle.
"Still cant resist throwing your weight around, can you?
β
β
Kelley Armstrong
β
I'm not running away. But this is one corner of one country on one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond, and there is so much, so much, to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them. Before they flare and fade forever.
β
β
Chris Chibnall
β
What?" he whispered. "What are you smiling about?"
My fingers brushed against his hair, trying to smooth it down. I realized what I was doing a full minute after Liam had closed his eyes and leaned into my touch. Embarrassment flared up my chest, but he grabbed my hand before I could pull back and tucked it under his chin.
"Nope," he whispered, when I tried to tug it away. "Mine now."
Dangerous. This is dangerous. The warning was fleeting, banished to the back corners of my mind, where it wouldn't interrupt how good it felt to touch him - how right.
"I'm going to need it back eventually," I said, letting him run it along the stubble on his chin.
"Too bad."
"...crackers..." a voice breathed out behind us, "yessss..."
Both of us turned, watching as Chubs twisted around in his seat and settled back down, still fast asleep.
I pressed a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. Liam rolled his eyes, smiling.
"He dreams about food," he said. "A lot."
"At least they're good dreams."
"Yeah," Liam agreed. "I guess he's lucky.
β
β
Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1))
β
Slow Dance:
Have you ever watched kids, On a merry-go-round? Or listened to the rain, Slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down. Don't dance too fast. Time is short. The music won't last. Do you run through each day, On the fly? When you ask: How are you? Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed, With the next hundred chores, Running through your head? You'd better slow down, Don't dance too fast. Time is short, The music won't last. Ever told your child we'll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, Not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die, Cause you never had time, To call and say Hi? You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last. When you run so fast to get somewhere, You miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, It is like an unopened gift thrown away. Life is not a race. Do take it slower. Hear the music, Before the song is over.
β
β
Timothy Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek)
β
I like to see people reunited, maybe that's a silly thing, but what an I say, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and they crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone, I sit on the side with a coffee and write in my daybook, I examine the flight schedules that I've already memorized, I observe, I write, I try not to remember the life that I didn't want to lose but lost and have to remember
β
β
Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
β
I sprang toward him with the stake, hoping to catch him by surprise. But Dimitri was hard to catch by surprise. And he was fast. Oh, so fast. It was like he knew what I was going to do before I did it. He halted my attack with a glancing blow to the side of my head. I knew it would hurt later, but my adrenaline was running too strong for me to pay attention to it now.
Distantly, I realized some other people had come to watch us. Dimitri and I were celebrities in different ways around here, and our mentoring relationship added to the drama. This was prime-time entertainment.
My eyes were only on Dimitri, though. As we tested each other, attacking and blocking, I tried to remember everything he'd taught me. I also tried to remember everything I knew about him. I'd practiced with him for months. I knew him, knew his moves, just as he knew mine. I could anticipate him the same way. Once I started using that knowledge, the fight grew tricky. We were too well matched, both of us too fast. My heart thumped in my chest, and sweat coated my skin.
Then Dimitri finally got through. He moved in for an attack, coming at me with the full force of his body. I blocked the worst of it, but he was so strong that I was the one who stumbled from the impact. He didn't waste the opportunity and dragged me to the ground, trying to pin me. Being trapped like that by a Strigoi would likely result in the neck being bitten or broken. I couldn't let that happen.
So, although he held most of me to the ground, I managed to shove my elbow up and nail him in the face. He flinched and that was all I needed. I rolled him over and held him down. He fought to push me off, and I pushed right back while also trying to maneuver my stake. He was so strong, though. I was certain I wouldn't be able to hold him. Then, just as I thought I'd lose my hold, I got a good grip on the stake. And like that, the stake came down over his heart. It was done.
Behind me, people were clapping but all I noticed was Dimitri. Our gazes were locked. I was still straddling him, my hands pressed against his chest. Both of us were sweaty and breathing heavily. His eyes looked at me with prideβand hell of a lot more. He was so close and my body yearned for him, again thinking he was a piece of me I needed in order to be complete. The air between us seemed warm and heady, and I would have given anything in that moment to lie down with him and have his arms wrap around me. His expression showed that he was thinking the same thing. The fight was finished, but remnants of the adrenaline and animal intensity remained.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3))
β
Outside my bike, never has anything important in my life been just mine."
My body stilled, so did my heart, and my eyes locked with his.
He started moving again, slowly, deeply and he kept talking. "Always castoffs, leftovers, used, sometimes even food from the dumpsters."
My heart started beating again, only to trip over itself; my breath came fast, not only from what was happening to my body but what he was saying.
"Vance-"
His lips came to mine, his hands moved out of my hair and went to the side of my face and he stared in my eyes, pressing deep inside.
"Mine," he muttered, his deep voice hoarse, that fierce undercurrent there.
His tone caused a shiver to run through me, straight through to my soul.
Then he kissed me.
β
β
Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick, #4))
β
She inched closer to him. "I intrigue you?"
"You know you do," he replied boldly, his eyes burning into hers. Wow-things were suddenly heating up fast. He wondered if they would have sex right there on her desk.Somebody better move that stapler.
With a coy look, Taylor stood up to whisper in Jason's ear.
"then I think you're going to find this next part really intriging," she said breathlessly.
He gazed down at her-he like the sound of that-and raised one eybrow expectantly as taylor grinned wickedly and-
Slammed the office door right in his face.
For a moment, Jason could only stand there in the hallway with his nose pressed against the cold wood of her door. After a few seconds, he knocked politely.
Taylor whipped open the door, unamused.
Jason grinned at her. "I just gotta ask: where did you get the whole 'all the cute girls run around naked' thing?
β
β
Julie James (Just the Sexiest Man Alive)
β
Ove glares out of the window. The poser is jogging. Not that Ove is provoked by jogging. Not at all. Ove couldnβt give a damn about people jogging. What he canβt understand is why they have to make such a big thing of it. With those smug smiles on their faces, as if they were out there curing pulmonary emphysema. Either they walk fast or they run slowly, thatβs what joggers do. Itβs a forty-year-old manβs way of telling the world that he canβt do anything right. Is it really necessary to dress up as a fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast in order to be able to do it? Or the Olympic tobogganing team? Just because one shuffles aimlessly around the block for three quarters of an hour?
β
β
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
β
Nearly all runners do their slow runs too fast, and their fast runs too slow." Ken Mierke says. "So they're just training their bodies to burn sugar, which is the last thing a distance runner wants. You've got enough fat stored to run to California, so the more you train your body to burn fat instead of sugar, the longer your limited sugar tank is going to last."
-The way to activate your fat-burning furnace is by staying below your aerobic threshold--your hard-breathing point--during your endurance runs.
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
β
You see, I was looking for answers then. I still wanted to know why. As though somebody was going to answer that for me, as though any answer would be satisfying.
Not then, but afterward, I started to think about time, and how it keeps moving and draining and flowing forever forward, seconds into minutes into days into years, all of it leading to the same place, a current running forever in one direction. And we're all going and swimming as fast as we can, helping it along.
My point is: maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around in it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.
β
β
Lauren Oliver
β
How could I not fall in love with him," she asked. And on the tail end of her words, her bedroom door flew open and closed just as fast.
Jen bent over, panting heavily as she looked up at Sally.
"Hey Sally girl. Who we falling in love with?" Jen asked breathlessly.
"Jen, what's wrong?" Sally paused and then decided on a better question. "What have you done now?"
Jen stood up and took two deep breaths. Seeming to have regained her wind, she spoke quickly.
"First off, I've changed my mind. I don't want you to name your first born after me."
Sally interrupted. "Thank goodness for that," she muttered.
"I want you to name your entire freaking litter after me," Jen growled. "Do you know what I've been through?" Jen's arms were flinging around as she glared at Sally. "I did that little strip tease to try and keep things from escalating with the rest of the pack and Decebel was beyond pissed. I had to sneak out of the gathering room and make a run for it. I've been running through the freaking forest trying to throw him off by changing back and forth so that I could place my clothes that I carried in my freaking muzzle. CARRIED IN MY MUZZLE SALLY! I put them in different places to throw off him off my scent." Jen went over to Sally's window and was trying to judge the danger of using it as an exit.
β
β
Quinn Loftis
β
In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.
In our scriptures (Samyuktagama Sutra, volume 33), it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one does, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn how to run!
β
β
Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice)
β
Young people, Lord. Do they still call it infatuation? That magic ax that chops away the world in one blow, leaving only the couple standing there trembling? Whatever they call it, it leaps over anything, takes the biggest chair, the largest slice, rules the ground wherever it walks, from a mansion to a swamp, and its selfishness is its beauty. Before I was reduced to singsong, I saw all kinds of mating. Most are two-night stands trying to last a season. Some, the riptide ones, claim exclusive right to the real name, even though everybody drowns in its wake. People with no imagination feed it with sexβthe clown of love. They donβt know the real kinds, the better kinds, where losses are cut and everybody benefits. It takes a certain intelligence to love like thatβsoftly, without props. But the world is such a showpiece, maybe thatβs why folks try to outdo it, put everything they feel onstage just to prove they can think up things too: handsome scary things like fights to the death, adultery, setting sheets afire. They fail, of course. The world outdoes them every time. While they are busy showing off, digging other peopleβs graves, hanging themselves on a cross, running wild in the streets, cherries are quietly turning from greed to red, oysters are suffering pearls, and children are catching rain in their mouths expecting the drops to be cold but theyβre not; they are warm and smell like pineapple before they get heavier and heavier, so heavy and fast they canβt be caught one at a time. Poor swimmers head for shore while strong ones wait for lightningβs silver veins. Bottle-green clouds sweep in, pushing the rain inland where palm trees pretend to be shocked by the wind. Women scatter shielding their hair and men bend low holding the womenβs shoulders against their chests. I run too, finally. I say finally because I do like a good storm. I would be one of those people in the weather channel leaning into the wind while lawmen shout in megaphones: βGet moving!
β
β
Toni Morrison (Love)
β
Long Time. The famous seventeenth-century Ming painter Chou Yung relates a story that altered his behavior forever. Late one winter afternoon he set out to visit a town that lay across the river from his own town. He was bringing some important books and papers with him and had commissioned a young boy to help him carry them. As the ferry neared the other side of the river, Chou Yung asked the boatman if they would have time to get to the town before its gates closed, since it was a mile away and night was approaching. The boatman glanced at the boy, and at the bundle of loosely tied papers and booksββYes,β he replied, βif you do not walk too fast.β As they started out, however, the sun was setting. Afraid of being locked out of the town at night, prey to local bandits, Chou and the boy walked faster and faster, finally breaking into a run. Suddenly the string around the papers broke and the documents scattered on the ground. It took them many minutes to put the packet together again, and by the time they had reached the city gates, it was too late. When you force the pace out of fear and impatience, you create a nest of problems that require fixing, and you end up taking much longer than if you had taken your time.
β
β
Robert Greene (The 48 Laws of Power)
β
This is scary,β she whispers. βIβve never had a boyfriend before. I donβt know how this works. Do people become exclusive this fast? Are we supposed to pretend weβre not that interested for a few more dates?β
Oh, dear God.
Iβve never been turned on by a girl laying claim to me before. I usually run in the other direction. Sheβs obliterating every single thing I thought I knew about myself with every new sentence that passes those lips.
βI have no interest in faking disinterest,β I say. βIf you want to call yourself my girlfriend half as much as I wish you would, then it would save me a whole lot of begging. Because I was literally about to drop to my knees and beg you.β
She squints her eyes playfully. βNo begging. It screams desperation.β
βYou make me desperate,β I say, pressing my lips to hers again.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (Finding Cinderella (Hopeless, #2.5))
β
Iβll come back,β she promised. βIβll always come back to you.β
βI know,β he said with cold, calm arrogance. βIf I didnβt believe that, I wouldnβt let you go.β
βBelieve it. Itβs true.β She took a step back. Then another. βAlways.β
βEleanor, if you have any mercy in that dark heart of yours, when you leave right now, you will
walk and not run.β
... ...
crawl and she didnβt fly.
She ran. Down the hall she ran as if the hounds of hell nipped at her heels. She ran as if God
himself had ordered her to. She ran as if her life depended on it and in that moment she might
have sworn that it did.
She didnβt know why she ran. She didnβt know who or what waited for her in the White Room.
She only knew she had to get there as fast as she could and whoever it was, he was worth
running to.
β
β
Tiffany Reisz (The Angel (The Original Sinners, #2))
β
Father!
My father knows the proper way
The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
Just what should now be done.
He knows the way to fix the trusts,
He has a simple plan;
But if the furnace needs repairs,
We have to hire a man.
My father, in a day or two
Could land big thieves in jail;
There's nothing that he cannot do,
He knows no word like "fail."
"Our confidence" he would restore,
Of that there is no doubt;
But if there is a chair to mend,
We have to send it out.
All public questions that arise,
He settles on the spot;
He waits not till the tumult dies,
But grabs it while it's hot.
In matters of finance he can
Tell Congress what to do;
But, O, he finds it hard to meet
His bills as they fall due.
It almost makes him sick to read
The things law-makers say;
Why, father's just the man they need,
He never goes astray.
All wars he'd very quickly end,
As fast as I can write it;
But when a neighbor starts a fuss,
'Tis mother has to fight it.
In conversation father can
Do many wondrous things;
He's built upon a wiser plan
Than presidents or kings.
He knows the ins and outs of each
And every deep transaction;
We look to him for theories,
But look to ma for action
β
β
Edgar A. Guest
β
I'm not sure I even believe in marriage," Hadley says and he looks surprised.
"Aren't you on your way to a wedding?"
"Yeah," she says with a nod. "But that's what I mean."
He looks at her blankly.
"It shouldn't be this big fuss, where you drag everyone halfway across the world to witness your love. If you want to share your life together, fine. But it's between two people, and that should be enough. Why the big show? Why rub it in everyone's faces?"
Oliver runs a hand along his jaw, obviously not quite sure what to think. "It sounds like its weddings you don't believe in," he says finally. "Not marriage."
"I'm not such a big fan of either at the moment."
"I don't know," he says. "I think they're kind of nice."
"They're not," she insists. "They're all for show. You shouldn't need to prove anything if you really mean it. It should be a whole lot simpler than that. It should mean something."
"I think it does," Oliver says quietly. "It's a promise."
"I guess so," she says, unable to keep the sigh out of her voice. "But not everyone keeps that promise." she looks over toward the woman, still fast asleep. "Not everyone makes it fifty-two years, and if you do, it doesn't matter that you once stood in front of all those people and said that you would. The important part is that you had someone to stick by you all that time. Even when everything sucked.
β
β
Jennifer E. Smith (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight)
β
I donβt know whether you have ever seen a map of a personβs mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a childβs mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads on the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with sex elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate-pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine threepence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.
Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. Johnβs, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents...
β
β
J.M. Barrie
β
Uphill? There's nothing up the hill," Colly said, trying desperately to work out where this conversation was going.
"As a matter of fact, there is. There's a bluff about twelve meters high, with a river running below it. The water's deep, so it'll be quite safe for you to jump." In his brief glimpse of the river, Halt had noticed that the fast-flowing water cut under the bluff in a sharp curve. That should mean that the bottom had been scoured out over the years. A thought struck him. "You can swim, I assume?"
"Yes. I can swim," Colly said. "But I'm going jumping off some bluff just because you say to!"
"No, no. Of course not. That'd be asking far too much of you. You'll jump off because if you don't, I'll shoot you. It'll be the same effect, really. If I have to shoot you, you'll fall off. But I thought I'd give you a chance to survive." Halt paused, then added, "Oh, and if you decide to run downhill, I'll also shoot you with an arrow. Uphill and off is really your only chance of survival."
"You can't be serious!" Colly said. "Do you really-"
But he got no further. Halt leaned forward, putting a hand up to stop the outburst.
"Colly, take a good, long look into my eyes and tell me if you see anything, anything at all, that says I'm not deadly serious."
His eyes were deep brown, almost black. They were steady and unwavering and there was no sign of anything there but utter determination. Colly looked at them and after a few second, his eyes dropped away. halt nodded as the other man's gaze slid away from his.
"Good. Now we've got that settled, you should try to get some sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.
β
β
John Flanagan (The Kings of Clonmel (Ranger's Apprentice, #8))
β
When he heard light, rushing footfalls, he turned his head. Someone was racing along the second-floor balcony. Then laughter drifted down from above. Glorious feminine laughter.
He leaned out the archway and glanced at the grand staircase.
Bella appeared on the landing above, breathless, smiling, a black satin robe gathered in her hands. As she slowed at the head of the stairs, she looked over her shoulder, her thick dark hair swinging like a mane.
The pounding that came next was heavy and distant, growing louder until it was like boulders hitting the ground. Obviously, it was what she was waiting for. She let out a laugh, yanked her robe up even higher, and started down the stairs, bare feet skirting the steps as if she were floating. At the bottom, she hit the mosaic floor of the foyer and wheeled around just as Zsadist appeared in second-story hallway.
The Brother spotted her and went straight for the balcony, pegging his hands into the rail, swinging his legs up and pushing himself straight off into thin air. He flew outward, body in a perfect swan dive--except he wasn't over water, he was two floors up over hard stone.
John's cry for help came out as a mute, sustained rush of air--
Which was cut off as Zsadist dematerialized at the height of the dive. He took form twenty feet in front of Bella, who watched the show with glowing happiness.
Meanwhile, John's heart pounded from shock...then pumped fast for a different reason.
Bella smiled up at her mate, her breath still hard, her hands still gripping the robe, her eyes heavy with invitation. And Zsadist came forward to answer her call, seeming to get even bigger as he stalked over to her. The Brother's bonding scent filled the foyer, just as his low, lionlike growl did. The male was all animal at the moment....a very sexual animal.
"You like to be chased, nalla, " Z said in a voice so deep it distorted.
Bella's smile got even wider as she backed up into a corner. "Maybe."
"So run some more, why don't you." The words were dark and even John caught the erotic threat in them.
Bella took off, darting around her mate, going for the billiards room. Z tracked her like prey, pivoting around, his eyes leveled on the female's streaming hair and graceful body. As his lips peeled off his fangs, the white canines elongated, protruding from his mouth. And they weren't the only response he had to his shellan.
At his hips, pressing into the front of his leathers, was an erection the size of a tree trunk.
Z shot John a quick glance and then went back to his hunt, disappearing into the room, the pumping growl getting louder. From out of the open doors, there was a delighted squeal, a scramble, a female's gasp, and then....nothing.
He'd caught her.
......When Zsadist came out a moment later, he had Bella in his arms, her dark hair trailing down his shoulder as she lounged in the strength that held her. Her eyes locked on Z's face while he looked where he was going, her hand stroking his chest, her lips curved in a private smile.
There was a bite mark on her neck, one that had very definitely not been there before, and Bella's satisfaction as she stared at the hunger in her hellren's face was utterly compelling. John knew instinctively that Zsadist was going to finish two things upstairs: the mating and the feeding. The Brother was going to be at her throat and in between her legs. Probably at the same time.
God, John wanted that kind of connection.
β
β
J.R. Ward (Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #4))
β
No,β I hear myself say. βYouβre not supposed to be here.β
Sheβs sitting on my bed. Sheβs leaning back on her elbows, legs outstretched in front of her, crossed at the ankles. And while some part of me understands I must be dreaming, thereβs another, overwhelmingly dominant part of me that refuses to accept this. Part of me wants to believe sheβs really here, inches away from me, wearing this short, tight black dress that keeps slipping up her thighs. But everything about her looks different, oddly vibrant; the colors are all wrong. Her lips are a richer, deeper shade of pink; her eyes seem wider, darker. Sheβs wearing shoes I know sheβd never wear. And strangest of all: sheβs smiling at me.
βHi,β she whispers.
Itβs just one word, but my heart is already racing. Iβm inching away from her, stumbling back and nearly slamming my skull against the headboard, when I realize my shoulder is no longer wounded. I look down at myself. My arms are both fully functional. Iβm wearing nothing but a white T-shirt and my underwear.
She shifts positions in an instant, propping herself up on her knees before crawling over to me. She climbs onto my lap. Sheβs now straddling my waist. Iβm suddenly breathing too fast.
Her lips are at my ear. Her words are so soft. βKiss me,β she says.
βJulietteββ
βI came all the way here.β Sheβs still smiling at me. Itβs a rare smile, the kind sheβs never honored me with. But somehow, right now, sheβs mine. Sheβs mine and sheβs perfect and she wants me, and Iβm not going to fight it.
I donβt want to.
Her hands are tugging at my shirt, pulling it up over my head. Tossing it to the floor. She leans forward and kisses my neck, just once, so slowly. My eyes fall closed.
There arenβt enough words in this world to describe what Iβm feeling.
I feel her hands move down my chest, my stomach; her fingers run along the edge of my underwear. Her hair falls forward, grazing my skin, and I have to clench my fists to keep from pinning her to my bed.
Every nerve ending in my body is awake. Iβve never felt so alive or so desperate in my life, and Iβm sure if she could hear what Iβm thinking right now, sheβd run out the door and never come back.
Because I want her.
Now.
Here.
Everywhere.
I want nothing between us.
I want her clothes off and the lights on and I want to study her. I want to unzip her out of this dress and take my time with every inch of her. I canβt help my need to just stare; to know her and her features: the slope of her nose, the curve of her lips, the line of her jaw. I want to run my fingertips across the soft skin of her neck and trace it all the way down. I want to feel the weight of her pressed against me, wrapped around me.
I canβt remember a reason why this canβt be right or real. I canβt focus on anything but the fact that sheβs sitting on my lap, touching my chest, staring into my eyes like she might really love me.
I wonder if Iβve actually died.
But just as I lean in, she leans back, grinning before reaching behind her, never once breaking eye contact with me. βDonβt worry,β she whispers. βItβs almost over now.β
Her words seem so strange, so familiar. βWhat do you mean?β
βJust a little longer and Iβll leave.β
βNo.β Iβm blinking fast, reaching for her. βNo, donβt goβwhere are you goingββ
βYouβll be all right,β she says. βI promise.β
βNoββ
But now sheβs holding a gun.
And pointing it at my heart.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Destroy Me (Shatter Me, #1.5))